Football glossary
Broadcasts and podcasts use these constantly and almost never stop to explain them. Each page answers the question in a sentence, then gives you the rest if you want it.
Words you hear every week
- Bye week — A scheduled week with no game.
- Injured reserve (IR) — A roster list for injured players that frees up an active roster spot.
- NIL — Name, image and likeness: the right of a college athlete to be paid for endorsements, appearances and use of their own identity.
- Practice squad — A 16-player developmental roster separate from the 53-man active roster.
- Questionable, doubtful and out — The three game-status labels the NFL requires teams to publish before a game.
- Redshirt — Sitting out a season of competition while staying enrolled and practising, so the year does not count against a player's eligibility.
- Transfer portal — A database, plus a right.
- Waived vs released — Both mean a player was cut.
- Waiver wire — A 24-hour window where any team can claim a cut player and inherit his contract.
How rosters and money work
- Dead cap — Salary cap charges for players who are no longer on the roster.
- Franchise tag — A one-year contract a team can force on one of its own free agents, at a price set by the top salaries at that position.
- Guaranteed money — The part of an NFL contract a player keeps even if he is cut.
- Revenue sharing (the House settlement) — Schools paying athletes directly, out of their own revenue, under a per-school annual cap.
- Salary cap — A hard limit on what every NFL team may spend on player salaries in a season.
Rules and moments
- College Football Playoff — A 12-team bracket deciding the national champion.
- Pass interference (DPI and OPI) — Illegal contact that stops a player making a play on a catchable pass.
- Targeting — A college football foul for forcible contact to an opponent's head or neck, or for leading with the crown of the helmet.
- Tush push — A short-yardage quarterback sneak with teammates pushing him forward.
The numbers broadcasts quote
- EPA (expected points added) — How much a single play changed a team's expected points.
- SP+ — A rating built by Bill Connelly estimating how good a team is, adjusted for who it played.